


i'll be waiting

by haikyall



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, What Have I Done, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:56:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27780373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haikyall/pseuds/haikyall
Summary: Meet Kuroo Tetsurou, the man who didn't believe in reality as it slapped him across the face.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Reader
Kudos: 15





	i'll be waiting

**Author's Note:**

> [second day of my birthday week bash goes to the infamous Kuroo Tetsurou! aka the first guy I've simped for in haikyuu!]
> 
> [AU: your days are numbered but your last days are only visible to you]

Kuroo’s arms were starting to ache when he had finally arrived in the city, pulling a cart filled with lamb and deer that he had slaughtered for the means of sustenance. He looks on to the shadow of the city as he sees that people are slowly picking up, ending their notion of the day while he in the meantime, envied those who are already heading for supper.

He treads down the hill where he saw what the city was like with the light of dusk. The cart makes rumbling and bumping noises as the wheels follow the shape of the stone engraved path walk. All of the villagers knew this familiar sound, it meant Kuroo Tetsurou has returned and won’t be leaving till sustenance is at its scarcity once again.

Mumbling voices are heard as people slowly open their homes to see what has the hunter brought home this time. They marvel at the variety of meat they are about to consume on the next day. Some men volunteer to provide aid to the known marksman and a few ladies aid to the minor injuries the marksman acquired.

Kuroo Tetsurou was a respectable man, a marksman, a hunter, and highly experienced in the skill of the arrow (and the ladies). He always knew how to catch prey, he also knew what to say. And _God_ was that man attractive. The chuckle that kills more prey than anyone expects, The smooth way he is openly friendly yet so obviously flirting, the way he licks his lips when he’s parched. The man has the whole town swooning over him.

Amongst the crowd of people that try to pry the hunter apart, his attention is diverted to the smell of freshly baked bread. No, not just any baked bread, his favorite bread; puff cake. He just knows it’s a puff cake, the faint scent of butter and sugar taints the newly baked bread smell. He knows because only one baker in town makes that smell when making that pastry.

He excuses himself from the crowds of people, dying to hear his new adventurous stories, and runs as he follows the smell throughout the town. His brain may have forgotten the way as the only senses working is his sense of smell. Kuroo knows he needs to follow the smell, his instincts were never wrong. He stumbles around town, missing a few corners here and there, getting distracted isn’t an option for him at this point.

Knowing exactly when to stop, his feet halts its tracks and the smell starts to make a turn once again, his nose follows the scent, and his eyes land on a bakery, with fresh puff cakes out of the oven and sitting like a feather on a couch.

He swore that she has gotten a lot thinner, but it wasn’t all that evident, maybe it was because he missed her so much, maybe because he hasn’t seen her in so long. She walks in Kuroo’s view and everything seems to be a second slower, the way she smiled as another batch of pastries are fully baked and off to the setting rack to cool. He jogs towards the little bakery

He slows down his pace and leans on the counter, “Maybe spare me a pastry?”

Y/N chuckles, “Maybe? You always ask for one, Kuroo” As she grabs a puff cake fresh from the setting rack, Kuroo’s ears perk up at the use of the last name.

“I thought we established that you refer to me as Testurou,” He says with a raised eyebrow.

Y/N hums, “We did, I just had a thought that you were too tired to notice what I said,” She says as she lays a plate with a fluffy and fresh puff cake, steam still spewing out and warm to the touch, The butter on top is still in the process of melting as the sprinkled sugar shimmers under the light of the sunset.

“I always listen, Y/N,” Kuroo says with a smile before devouring the sweet bread.

Y/N grabs a hand towel to clean her hands, “And that would be 5,000 yen,” Kuroo chokes on his food at the sudden mention of the price. His reaction causes Y/N to erupt with laughter.

Kuroo gives a deceived face and points at the mischievous baker, “I thought you spared me! And you raised your price!”

“Think again Rooster-brain and that's because you never pay for the pastries you eat here”

Kuroo slams the money on the counter, “Its Tetsurou,” He munches as he feels like he’s been scammed.

“Rooster-brain” Y/N smiles as she takes the money before Kuroo even had the chance of taking it back. The marksman smiles and shakes his head as he takes another bite of the pastry.

Kuroo closes his eyes as he relishes the taste of the sweetbread in his mouth, how simple it melts yet the butter and sugar’s tastes remain inside, “How do you make these things taste so good?”

Y/N smiles at the satisfied customer before her, “Magicians never reveal their secrets to the audience,”

Kuroo squints his eyes in disbelief, “You’re a witch?” He whispers. Y/N gives a shocked look and throws Kuroo her towel in offense but Kuroo manages to catch it right before it hits his face.

“No! For Pete’s sake Tetsu!” Y/N annoyingly shouts as she wipes her face with her hands in distress at such a ruthless joke.

Kuroo seems to find this entertaining and is practically reaching for air as he laughs, “I’m kidding!” Y/N seems to laugh as well to find this relieving. She always found Kuroo’s laugh to be relaxing, soothing, almost as if it was hugging her, welcoming himself back home.

Kuroo seems to calm down and seems to have a more serious topic at hand, “Hey, how many left for you?” Y/N looks at their wrist and simply shows the hunter their arm but Kuroo looks at the blank wrist back to the baker’s face.

“I can’t see it”

“What do you mean you can’t see it? I show it to you a bunch of times” Y/N raises her eyebrows in wonder and looks at their wrist again

**_00002_ **

Kuroo chuckles because he knows what she just said was downright true, “Really, I can’t see it, sweetie pie,” Y/N looks at him dead straight into the eyes and sees that he’s genuinely serious.

“… it says two,”

____________________________

**_00001_ ** ****

“Oh, sweetie pie~” Kuroo knocks on the baker’s stall once again, Y/N hears the familiar nickname and rushes back out, wiping any baking dough and products off her hands.

“What, now Tetsu?”

Kuroo leans on the counter, “Are you busy?”

“Hmmm, not for a while, the bread is still rising” Y/N explains. The answer brings a smile to Kuroo’s face, He holds out a hand for her

“Great, I need to show you something”

Y/N looks back at the mess she concocted in the kitchen, and realizes there might be some cleaning up to do, “But—“

“C’mon, just for a while please, sweetie pie~, you can’t possibly deny me, your dearest Tetsurou, right?” Kuroo teases and Y/N rolls her eyes but smiles anyway. She takes his hand.

“Alright,”

Kuroo leads both of them to a dark brown horse waiting nearby the stall Y/N was so familiar with, mainly because she lived there. Y/N has ridden a horse with Kuroo before so this was no surprise.

She takes a step on the stirrup of the saddle and swings her other leg to the other side of the horse, Kuroo climbs on shortly after, he takes the reins, and with a click of his tongue, the horse is moving its way out of the city.

Y/N has to ignore the realization that she’s in between the arms of Kuroo Tetsurou, once again. As they rode to whatever destination Kuroo has in mind, she comes to find the hunter behind her seems to be humming. Whatever he was doing to her and her heart, seemed to be working like it, including being in a strange embrace with him, causes to make an earthquake in her chest.

“Where exactly are we going?” Y/N asks as they leave the city, her body is starting to be filled with adrenaline as so did curiosity.

“Impatient, are we?” Kuroo teases, and Y/N refuted shakes her head.

“No, just curious,”

“… curious, are we?” Kuroo continues and laughs at his own joke and Y/N seems to want to know even more as he avoids answering the question and to avoid the sudden jump of her chest at the feeling and sound of Kuroo’s chest rumbling with laughter.

“Tetsurou,”

“Fine, but… a magician never reveals their secrets to the audience,” Kuroo says a very familiar line, and Y/N laughs,

“You’re going to be showing it to me anyway,” Y/N points out, and looks at the marksman,Kuroo on the other hand, smirks

“Kiss me now, and maybe I’ll tell you,” Kuroo says, taking his eyes off the trail and looking at Y/N in the eyes. He chuckles once he is greeted with silence from the baker whose cheeks are flustered and mind racing with thoughts of what kissing Kuroo would be like, making her even more flustered than she already is.

“That’s what I thought— HIYA!” He says, with a kick and a flick of his wrist on the reins the horse picks up its pace and gallops to whatever Kuroo plans to bring Y/N to.

____________________________

The horse finally stops its tracks and they arrive at a hill with a huge willow tree with a stream right below touching its last few leaves on the branches. The sound you hear is like that of a fairytale, the water streaming down, wind rustling through the leaves as it sweeps the earth, birds chirping like they were greeting Y/N to the scenery.

Y/N gets off the horse and looks around. Kuroo always took her to places he knew she’d like, places he saw when he was hunting, places he wanted them both to look indulge in.

“How did you find this?” Y/N smiles as she looks back to a Kuroo leaning on the tree.

“Was chasing a doe and found this place, though it was relaxing and it was scorching hot then so I had to rest somewhere,” Kuroo explains as he sits down on the ground, with Y/N following in pursuit.

“This place is amazing, Tetsu,” Y/N says, lying down on Kuroo’s lap, his hand playing with the strands of Y/N’s hair.

“Anything for you,”

Silence fills the void.

“How many left for you?” Y/N asks, cautiously and Kuroojust shows her his wrist.

**_34975_ **

Y/N nods, “Would the world change then… after a whole century?” Y/N says as she thinks about what the world might do to change and to grow.

Kuroo shrugs, “Maybe, I don’t really want to think of the future yet,”

“Testu, you need to know that I want you to continue living, finish your sentence, we can always be with each other in the end,” Y/N says, hand cradling onto Kuroo’s face to which he subconsciously leans to.

“But all I want is to be with you,”

Y/N smiles, “I am with you,” Kuroo doesn’t seem to listen as he doesn’t want to think of what exactly life is like in the future. Y/N sits up and fumbles with something at the nape of her neck, she manages to take it off and gather it in her hands.

“Here,” Y/N gives the necklace, crumpled up in her fist, and opens the marksman’s hand to give it to him.

Kuroo opens his hand to see that she gave him a thin metal framed hourglass necklace. He examines it by flipping the pendant upside down, and back up. Y/N giggles at the curiosity of her lover,

“If in case you forget, this necklace will remind you” Y/N explains, “I love you,”

“I love you till the last sand grain falls” Kuroo replies, and kisses Y/N’s cheek,

“You feel kinda warmer than usual, are you alright?” Kuroo's face drains out of color at remembering what tomorrow might be,

Y/N pats her neck to see if her temperature is alright, “Yeah, it's probably from baking too much,” Y/N explains, Kuroo nods.

Y/N looks around the place once more, “This place really is relaxing,” the comment brings a smile to Kuroo’s face like he was waiting for that to be said like it wasn’t that obvious.

“Right? Thought you might like it” Kuroo says before grabbing Y/N’s face and closing the distance between them, It was a kiss of the moment. The kiss that spoke so many different emotions Kuroo was too afraid to say, the emotions he didn’t want to say, the reality he didn’t want to forgo.

The fireworks never stopped, the kiss, although they’ve done it billions of times, never felt old. It always felt like the first time, the butterflies were still coming out, we're still flying, fluttering, it never left.

____________________________

**_00000_ **

_Kuroo didn’t want to believe it, he refused to, but reality swoops in to prove what one believes in doesn’t exactly come true._

Kuroo pushes past a few people as he runs to the stall of the baker he loves. He wants to see her, one more time, he wants more time. He’s rushing, everyone was genuinely worried, they’ve never seen the hunter so disarranged before.

He was wearing the hourglass necklace she gave him. He scolds himself whenever he misses a corner, it's more time delayed, a time he could’ve spent hugging her, telling her he loved her, kissing her like the world ended if he didn’t do it.

Because that’s what it felt like

_Just one more kiss, please._

He finally arrives at her stall, and **_it’s not open._** He could tell from the fact that there was no new bread on display on the counter, no one was whipping up something in the kitchen and the fact it was dead silent scares him.

“Y/N?”

No answer. It was as if a tumbleweed came into the frame. “Sweetie pie?”

The silence was always a common friend to those who needed it. Kuroo saw the silence as an enemy, he did absolutely not want to hear it.

“Y/N? Don’t scare me like this, sweetie,” He shouts, laced with fear, anxiousness, and worry, once again, silence. The wind seemed to be an answer as it pushes Kuroo inside the house.

He scurries inside, looking for any trace of life, literally. Nothing in there moved yet it felt so cold, empty, like Y/N’s presence was enough to fill the void the bakery had. He scrambles as he sees the kitchen is empty, he heads upstairs to the bedroom.

And he hears a sound, he’s relieved, but it’s not the sound he likes or wanted to hear.

 ** _It was the sound of sobbing_**.

He knocks on the door and he is greeted by a close relative of Y/N, a relative that grew up with her and thought of her as a family, as a sister. He notices that this relative’s eyes were bloodshot,

_Why are they crying?_

The relative grabs Kuroo by the shoulder and continues to sob, “Sh-she’s gone, …. Y/N ….yellow fev-ver” As the relative tries to explain, they have pushed away. Kuroo needs to see her, to tell him it was some sick joke, that it was payback for something he did.He needs to see her make sure she’s alive.

Yet a doctor stands before him, “I’m sorry, we did all that we can do,”

Kuroo’s emotions reach its proximity and he yells out, “YOU DIDN’T DO ENOUGH,” Kuroo launches to the doctor, and grabs him by the collar of his coat, “BRING HER BACK, BRING HER BACK, I SAID BRING HER—“

A hand on the back brings him to a stop, “Kuroo,”

He silently and calmly lets go of the collar of the doctor’s coat, tears brimming out of his eye sockets. “I’m sorry, just bring her back, I haven’t said ‘I love you’ yet,” He croaked. The doctor nods and moves out of the way.

And there she was.

She was so still, lifelike, and asleep. He didn’t want to see her like this. He dreaded this day, that it would be too much for him to handle. He kneels to her sleeping figure. He slips his hand under her head, and it feels heavier than usual. It didn’t feel lifelike, it felt like stone.

Kuroo sobs as he hugs her lifeless body, her head resting on his shoulder. Tears flowing down as they are left alone in the room. The marksman couldn’t help but place a longing, and hopeful kiss on the forehead, wishing that the kiss would somehow turn this nightmare into a fairytale and would wake the sleeping beauty up, yet the girl remained lifeless as she will ever be.

**_“I haven’t kissed you yet, sweetie pie”_ **

____________________________

Dinner without her felt like torture, going on without her felt like torture. Food suddenly lost its taste, it didn’t even look appetizing, Kuroo just plays with his food with a fork as he feels nodus tollens, he wants to care less about what’s happening but he just can’t do that. An unsettling feeling of longing and expectation that the baker he once had in his arms will come from the kitchen to serve them a new pastry she whipped up from that tiny kitchen of hers.

“Kuroo,” The relative across the table breaks the silence

Kuroo gives them a sad smile, “Please, call me Tetsurou,”

“Ku— Tetsurou, she wanted to give you this” The relative stutters as they hand in a sealed envelope and formally tells Kuroo that they will hit the haystack and Kuroo gives his gratitude, condolences, and goodnights.

He fumbles with the envelope, debating if he should head home before opening the letter. His mind says that might be the most sensible thing he’s ever thought of as of today. Yet his fingers are suddenly tearing the envelope open to reveal a carefully written letter, handwriting as if she was struggling to even stand up to write the letter.

“ ** _As the sand falls to the ground   
_****_Please let me kiss you  
_****_It’s you that I lie with  
_****_Cause the hardest part of this, is leaving you  
_****_Yes, it’s you, that I welcome death in  
_** **_I’ll wait a hundred years,  
_********_But I’m not afraid to wait a million more for you, my love_**

**_I love you dearly,_ **

**_—Y/N”_ **

____________________________

**Author's Note:**

> [AU: your days are numbered but your last days are only visible to you]
> 
> [one, yes, they are tiktok sounds, two, yes, they are two different sounds, and three, yes, I know its starts as "As the earth falls to the ground, i will not kiss you" and "I've waited a hundred years, but I'll wait a million more for you,"]


End file.
